On a muggy day in June, my NSLC group and I entered one of the Senate buildings that sits across the street from the Capitol for our meeting with an Independent Senator from Vermont: Bernie Sanders. This was 2012, when our arguments were still over Romney and Obama, with no one in the room anticipating that we were sitting in front of a future presidential candidate.
I was impressed by Senator Sanders. Already at that point I was disillusioned by the two-party system and curious about what it would take to run a campaign as an Independent. Watching him speak about Democratic Socialism in front of a group of people who thought a person learning Russian should automatically be called a communist was inspiring. After that and a U.S. Government course my senior year in which my teacher made sure we knew about other parties, I decided that when I registered to vote, I would do so as "No Party Preference (NPP)."
In the county where I live, in Northern California, there are more voters registered NPP than as Republicans. Yet information on voting as a nonpartisan voter is not as readily available as it is for the two major parties, and I learned something last week simply by chance that I felt everyone who votes as an NPP needs to know.
If you are a NPP voter in California, you need to request a ballot for a partisan primary if you wish to vote in the Democratic, American Independent, or Libertarian presidential primaries. If you vote at a polling place, you can simply ask the poll worker for one of these ballots. If you vote by mail, you need to call your county elections office and they will tell you how to request a partisan ballot. Alternatively, if you received a sample voter guide, there should be a detachable card that you can return by mail.
If you are a NPP voter in California and you want to vote in the Republican, Green, or Peace and Freedom party presidential primaries, you need to re-register as a member of one of those parties, which you can do here. The deadline for re-registering is May 23, 2016.
If you do not wish to vote in the presidential primary for any party, you will be mailed or given a non-partisan ballot. This ballot will contain all other offices you are geographically eligible to participate in that are not partisan, such as U.S. Senate races or state house offices.
Remember that if you registered as an American Independent, you are not a non-partisan voter because that is an actual party. If you do not wish to be an American Independent, use the link above to re-register. If you are unsure and need to check, your county's election board website should have a way for you to check your voter registration.
Requesting a partisan ballot does not mean that you will be restricted to voting for only candidates of that party for state and county offices. Thanks to California's Top-Two primary system, the primary for voter-nominated offices (state legislative offices, U.S. congressional offices, and state constitutional offices) is open, and the two candidates who receive the most votes go on to the general election, regardless of their party.
Whether you decide to vote as a non-partisan or to request a partisan ballot, make sure you go out and vote. Although for many offices there will be a second vote in November, the propositions and taxes that are also on the primary ballot are just as important; you only get to vote on them once.
Go out there and rock the vote!
